Zenobia Beach Resort Zanzibar — Hotel in Unguja

I’ve settled on a 3 for the hotel. After reading the reviews on Booking.Com I had higher expectations for Zenobia.

The moment I arrived, I said to myself - this ain’t it. But I typically only book for 3 nights just in case I hate a place. I was intially going to book the Z hotel but it was sold out. With my heart set on a 4-5 star resort, dropping down to a 3 was hard. It was either here or Canary. I stopped by Canary after I was due to check out. Canary was nicer, but not by the beach. After traveling so long I just wanted to hear ocean waves.

I checked into the “deluxe” room and initially I thought this was incorrect. As some other reviews have stated. Deluxe is just your budget room with a view. It wasn’t worth it so once I checked out I just checked back in downstairs to a cheaper room.

The reviews state the rooms are dated, but the hotel is 3 yrs old. You definitely could not tell the hotel is 3 years old. It’s not the furniture- it’s the bad craftsmanship. Toilet seats don’t fit. The fridge is yellow inside, paint falling, grout done sloppily. For a hotel this young it does look old and dated. That’s just a fact. It is well kept though and clean. But the beds are not comfortable.

I also took away a star because of the owner’s responses to people who have stayed at his establishment, paying him. You’d think he was paying them. Had I read these I probably would’ve passed on it solely. He’s rude and should take better critique of his establishment. All of his responses call his guests “fraud”. You do know it’s because of your guest that you even have an establishment. You ought to be more grateful.

I also took away another star because I asked if they had laundry services. To which I was advised they could help. $2 per item was highway robbery. I talked them down. Only to find out one of the employees who helped secure laundry added an extra $3 tip for himself. This DID NOT sit well with me. In the moment I wasn’t going to complain. Or make a big fuss. $3 is pennies to me, BUT as a staff worker of the hotel - it’s a NO. And quite frankly - it’s unprofessional. You didn’t do any work for my money. In hindsight - I shouldn’t have paid him. If anything it should’ve went to the laundry servicer. If had exact change he definitely would not have gotten paid.

Mind you I tipped my waitress $20 with no hesitation. Who was excellent by the way. EXCELLENT. She even advised me that it helped her pay for her room. I’m very much so aware of the strength of my dollar.

But, he should’ve initially advised there was an extra charge going directly to him. I would’ve googled laundry and gone directly to the source. I don’t do entitlement. Your hotel charges $90 USD/night. Take up being paid more with your boss.

So I settled on 3 stars. While the staff is A+, location is A+, I personally wouldn’t...

Wouldn’t recommend staying here. Overpriced and much better options for similar prices or less which much better rooms/facilities. We paid 800 dollars for 5 nights, the air con in the room was terrible and didn’t work for 2 nights which we complained about. Wasn’t ever able to speak to a manager or someone who run the hotel so felt bad complaining to the waiters when it obviously isn’t their fault. It was impossible to sleep in the room as it was so hot, the placement of the air con is round the corner to the bed anyway so when it did work we had to move the bed to be close to it to get any sort of air.

There was ants everywhere in the bathroom and around the door. The door wasn’t shut properly and every time the room was cleaned the windows were left open and air con off so we’d come back from being out all day to a boiling hot room full of ants etc.

The fridge was full of mould. The bedding was never cleaned only bed made. And for 800 dollars we paid for a deluxe sea view room which is a cheek because they are NO different to the standard room below and if anything there are better as you don’t have a big wall obstructing your view of the sea, the difference making it deluxe is horrible stairs, the room itself is identical so you’re paying more to basically be upstairs? We consistently asked to be move rooms and were told it wasn’t possible and that we were on the best room but I think this was because they knew we were paying over the odds. We asked for our money back and we’d go and stay elsewhere and they said if we stayed we’d receive a 50% refund upon leaving, which we still haven’t received?

You didn’t have a phone in your room so every time there was an issue you would have to go to reception which is outside and it was ridiculously humid so after already being annoyed by the air con not working it just made it 10x worse having to walk to complain.Room service wasn’t an option either. There was no pool even though other hotels that were cheaper had one, the terrace area was vile and spoiled and only offered falling apart sunbeds and ripped cushions to put on top.

The one good thing is that the food in the restaurant was nice and that the waiters tried to help us when complaining. I felt sorry for them. We were eventually told we would receive a 50% refund on our stay which we had to chase and we have now left and obviously haven’t got a penny of it.

We spent every day out on trips or at other hotels because this hotel was the only negative. Don’t believe the photos, this review is only touching how bad the...

Made a reservation for this place on Booking.com almost a month before arrival. Arrived late at night and had a lot of issues with check-in. At first, there was an additional fee for paying with credit card which was only in small print under a separate heading (not included in the total quoted on booking.com). Then, after I agreed to pay by credit card with the fee, their machine didn't work. The options given to me were to go with the night staff to a local atm to withdraw cash (at this point past midnight, in a town I was unfamiliar with as a solo female traveler, which wouldn't have worked anyway because there's a cap to how much you can withdraw at each ATM), or to give them my passport to keep overnight and sort out payment in the morning (this was only offered after a lot of back and forth with the night staff's manager via text), which I felt entirely uncomfortable with. I was begging them for the room because I needed rest before an excursion the next morning and they already had my CC on file on Booking.com, so I don't understand why they couldn't just sort it out the next morning. I even offered for them to keep my driver's license and credit card b/c I was so desperate, but they only wanted my passport. Finally, after over an hour of arguing back and forth(at this point past 1am), their credit card machine finally worked and I was able to check in after paying in full.

While all this was happening the first night, I texted booking.com support for help but didn't hear back immediately. The third night, there was a knocking on my door at 10pm while I was already in bed in PJs. It was the same night staff, asking me to go to the office and prove I'm there b/c booking had contacted them about the issue. Again, I couldn't understand why this could not be sorted out the next morning with the light of day. The next AM I found him surreptitiously taking photos of me at breakfast, presumably to assure booking that I was staying there. I assured him that I'd let booking know I had checked in.

The upside to this place is that the waterfront view is beautiful, the restaurant and cleaning staff were also all very nice (though rooms themselves are quite basic and a bit ramshackle). However, the overall experience left me feeling very unsafe, as if the front desk suspected me to be a criminal who would sleep for a night there and leave without paying, when I've already put down my credit card details to "guarantee the stay". From my travel experiences spanning hostels to 5 star resorts, I've never been treated like this...